Energy major BP will expand its LNG supply by 30% in the coming three years and boost this to 30 million tonnes per annum by 2030.
Speaking as the company presented record 2022 profits, BP chief financial officer Murray Auchincloss said the new supply will come from Coral FLNG off Mozambique, its upcoming Tortue FLNG project in Senegal and Mauritania, train 3 of the Tangguh LNG project and its offtake from Venture Global’s liquefaction in the US.
Executive vice president of trading & shipping Carol Howle said the company’s LNG supply will expand from 19-mtpa in 2022 to 25-mtpa by 2025 and grow to 30 mtpa by 2030.
Howle said this will be a mix of equity and merchant volumes with the balance shifting more to the merchant supply over time.
She said the company has a contracting strategy and has been able to “time its purchases well” in terms of avoiding buying in the peaks and selling in the troughs.
“We will continue to look for opportunities as we go forward,” she said.
BP executive vice president for production & operations Gordon Birrell said that on the LNG equity side BP has choices in Australia, West Africa and the Middle East on whether to think about expanding its equity investment in LNG.
The major spoke about a sixfold expansion in its biogas position by 2030, flagging up with its acquisition of Archaea Energy.
Answering questions Howle said this business is scaleable and outlined uses for it including accessing newer revenue streams for it like methanol, carbon capture & storage and electric vehicles and in the future hydrogen.
She admitted that BP has benefited from the increase in [price] volatility said the company sees further growth whether that is across biofuels, biogas, LNG or the “newer commodities” — hydrogen and its derivatives.
The major said it is building export hubs for hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives. It aims to produce 0.5 to 0.7 mtpa of hydrogen by 2030.
BP announced profits of $27.7bn (£23bn) in 2022, more than double its earnings a year earlier.
Chief executive Bernard Looney described the company as “performing while transforming”.
